1931 The Grand Punk Railroad: Express/Epilogue II: Epilogue - The Flying Pussyfoot
Synopsis In the Daily Days' headquarters, Rachel finishes her report to The President of the Daily Days concerning her experiences with the Flying Pussyfoot. The President asks her what she gained from buying all those train tickets, but she has no answer to give him. Rachel admits that what she regrets most is not punching "that whiskered pig" (Turner) in the face. The President offers to share with her information on what became of Turner in the end, gratis. The narrative shifts to Turner's perspective. It turns out that once he'd come to after having both his shoulders dislocated, he'd hid in the bathroom until the police eventually found him during the train's stop at the switch point. They'd popped his shoulders in for him, and the passengers had laughed while he'd bawled. Turner now rages over his treatment aboard the train to a middle-aged Nebula executive, blustering that he intends to take Nebula to court over their poor security and the behavior of Jon Panel and Fang Lin-Shan (referring to them with xenophobic and racist epithets). The executive hands him the receiver of a telephone when it rings, and Turner goes pale as a politician (implied to be Senator Manfred Beriam) addresses him. Once Turner puts the receiver down, the executive comments that Senator Beriam intends on keeping this incident as quiet as possible and that he has heard Turner once pinned the blame for a mistake of his own doing on a railroad technician. The executive nonchalantly says that Nebula would have no problems with having the man's then-colleagues testify once more; if Nebula offers to hire them on favorable terms, he is sure that they will testify honestly. All color drains from Turner's face, and he leaves the room without another word. The executive calls out that the Senator has his eye on Turner to Turner's retreating back. Back in the Daily Days' headquarters, present day, the President admits that he was the one who sold information on Turner's past to the executive. He also admits that he feels guilty for having used information about Rachel's past without her permission. After a moment, Rachel asks if she can start billing the Daily Days for travel expenses - she has decided to stop stowing away. The combined efforts of Senator Beriam and Nebula prove quite successful in covering up the Flying Pussyfoot incident. The murder of Tony remains known to the general public, but the police conclude that it was unrelated to the Flying Pussyfoot incident and do not put much effort into finding Tony's killer. In the end, the faceless corpse in the conductors' room is assumed to be Claire Stanfield. The Flying Pussyfoot is eventually scrapped (save for the locomotive), and its cars are left to rot in a public park on the outskirts of the city. For some reason, a piece of the last car's roof is missing. When Prohibition is lifted on December 05, 1933, the public celebrates. Crowds dance for joy on the car's remains and smash them to bits. What is left of the train mingles with the scrap iron in the junkyard, and is lost forever. Trivia Cultural References Characters in Order of Appearance * Rachel * The President of the Daily Days * Turner Quotes "The stage of the incident was covered up, going from darkness into darkness, and no one ever knew what had become of it. …Except for one piece: the message that had been cut out of the roof." - The last lines. Category:Light Novel Chapters